What is SWEEPS?
The Strengthen Workforce Education for Excellence in Programming Securely (SWEEPS) initiative is a joint effort among the National Security Agency, various cybersecurity initiatives, and leading universities and community colleges. Its aim is to equip software developers with the skills needed to enhance code security while maintaining efficiency. Learners can take SWEEPS programs at
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University of California, Davis (UCD)--learn more and apply.
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University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC)--learn more and apply.
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Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI)--learn more and apply.
Program Descriptions
Program Type | Description | Duration | Participating Schools |
|---|---|---|---|
Workshop | A virtual workshop for college educators and IT professionals, providing introductory-level training on secure programming. | One day (8 hours) virtual classroom | WPI, UMBC |
Course | A self-paced online course for early career software engineers, IT professionals, graduate students, and college educators. | 45 hours (3 semester credits/ 4.5 quarter credits) | UCD, UMBC |
Summer Camp | A one week intensive camp taught online in virtual classrooms for software engineers, graduate students, college educators, and IT and cyber professionals, expecting an in-depth understanding of secure programming. | 5 days (5 hours/day) virtual classroom | UCD, WPI |
Certificate | For mid-senior level software engineers, cyber professionals, IT professionals, and graduate students. This is an intensive year of study that earns an academic certificate. Each institution has a different certificate. Please see the university program pages for details for each program. | 1 academic year (Approx. 12 Semester Credits) of online study | UCD, WPI, UMBC |
Clinic | For college students with beginner-level programming experience. The clinic consists of virtual meetings that you can schedule to review code projects. | 30-minute virtual meetings | UCD, WPI, UMBC |
The Agencies and Educators Behind SWEEPS
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University of California, Davis
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University of Maryland Baltimore County
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Worcester Polytechnic Institute
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California Polytechnic State University-San Luis Obispo
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Cosumnes River College
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DARK Enterprises Inc. (a non-profit organization that focuses on cybersecurity education)
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StrongAuth, Inc. (dba StrongKey) (a technology firm specializing in cybersecurity)
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SWEEPS is funded by a grant from the National Centers for Academic Excellence in Cybersecurity (NCAE-C).